Climate Change and Air Quality Progress Report 2022 to 2023

The following section details the progress made against the aims and objectives of the Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy.

Area greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are taken from the UK local authority and regional greenhouse gas emissions national statistics: 2005-2021 and have been calculated using a generation based approach. These were published by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on 29th June 2023 and the data is presented in Figure 1 –confirming that emissions from the area the Council serves are decreasing at an average rate of 2.8% per annum.

Emissions decreased significantly in 2020 largely due to restrictions on people and organisations’ activities during the COVID pandemic - the first lockdown was announced by the Prime Minister on 23 March 2020. They increased in 2021 by 6.53% (related largely to an easing of restrictions and colder temperatures increasing the use of heating in buildings) but were 7.73% lower than 2019. The population grew by approximately 1.38% in the area between 2019 and 2021 and therefore per capita emissions fell by 0.6 tCO2e to 5.3 tCO2e per person.

Emissions generated from all source categories have decreased between 2005 and 2021 apart from waste management ‘other’ emissions which is influenced by population growth in the area. While emissions across most categories were higher in 2021 compared to 2020, emissions from industry continued to fall; and the amount of carbon emissions sequestered by grassland in the area increased.

Levels of carbon emissions being sequestered by forested and grassland areas in Buckinghamshire have increased by an average rate of 0.57% per annum.

Table 1 provides details of the carbon emissions produced by various sources in Buckinghamshire in 2021.